Get your oysters at Hoopers Island Seafood Market in Cambridge

By Debra R. Messick, Special to Dorchester Banner
Posted 3/3/22

On Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday weekend, while many county residents rushed around stocking up for romantic dinners and parties, throngs of local oyster lovers made it the biggest …

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Get your oysters at Hoopers Island Seafood Market in Cambridge

Posted

On Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday weekend, while many county residents rushed around stocking up for romantic dinners and parties, throngs of local oyster lovers made it the biggest weekend yet for Hoopers Island Oyster Company’s new retail seafood market in Cambridge, located where Chesapeake Drive meets Rt. 16 behind Walmart.

Operating Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Hoopers Island Seafood Market features the company’s signature Chesapeake Gold, Chesapeake Smokes (created in collaboration with DogFish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione) and Holy Grail varieties in batches of 25, 50 or 100 plus shucked pints (possibly the market’s most popular item — over 100 were sold on the Saturday before Valentine’s Day). Wild-caught Whitewood Cove oysters are also available.

Customers can currently check the iced display case for snow crab, scallops, clams, shrimp, mussels and smoked salmon, with frozen lobster available. As they come into season, hard and softshell crab, crabmeat and varieties of fish will also be stocked.

“People make requests for items to be carried all the time, and they’re all given strong consideration,” market manager Allison Fitzhugh noted.

The shop also features locally produced condiments, including Cambridge’s Skeeter Beater Hot Sauce and Oxford’s Black Pearl Chesapeake Oyster Salsa, plus fresh cocktail and tartar sauces from Allentown, Pennsylvania’s Kelchner’s.

Busy cooks looking for ideas can find take-along items, such as Zatarain’s Rice for jambalaya, plus free recipe cards for cooking oyster stew, fried oysters and oysters Rockefeller.

Accessories to streamline prep and attractively serve oysters are on display, from hardwood shucking and rare wooden charcuterie boards to Toadfish Outfitters shucking cloths and knives, plus Frogmore’s shrimp cleaning gadget.

Other nonedible items for purchase include long- and short-sleeved T-shirts featuring the company’s logo as well as those bearing the 2020 coined catchphrase “Shuck the Pandemic,” along with the five limited edition collectible Chesapeake Heritage oyster tins released by the company each fall since 2017.

The inaugural Series 1 can, modeled after vintage 19th and 20th century oyster cans, features Michael Rosato’s painting of the Hooper Island Lighthouse. Series 2 displays artist Kevin Davidson’s illustration of the Skipjack Nathan of Dorchester sailing under the lighthouse. Series 3, Sunrise on Fishing Bay, displays Leslie Giles’ watercolor portrait of a waterman and child hand tonging for oysters. Series 4 artist Mona Pennypacker’s lino-cut design of a great blue heron is currently sold out, but limited edition signed prints are available.

Series 5, released in October 2021, presented another Pennypacker design, Oyster Watch, a watercolor portrait of yellow Labrador retriever Baylor, Fitzhugh’s beloved 5-year-old dog, who occasionally makes appearances at the market. 

Several years ago, when Fitzhugh began working with the company started by her dad Ricky, helping to grow algae used to feed oyster larvae at the Crocheron hatchery, Baylor came to work with her every day, she recalled.

Currently in her last semester at Salisbury University, the economics major has enjoyed taking on the role of managing the market, meeting customers and clients.

“Working at the hatchery helped me understand the oyster farming process from the beginning,” Fitzhugh said. “Now, when people who stop in have questions, I can draw on some of my own experience to answer.”

The questions may be prompted by the market’s eye-catching visual display created by Mid-Shore Graphics, A Journey from Seed to Shuck, Oyster Farming the Waterman’s Way. Easy to view photographs accompanied by clear captions bring viewers along on a step-by-step virtual oyster farm tour.

While hatchery/nursery and farm facilities are situated on Hoopers Island, the company’s Cambridge location now housing the market, 837 B Chesapeake Drive, is also its main office plus design and fabrication headquarters for manufacturing specialized aquaculture equipment. The company’s oyster raising gear also supplies growing demand from similar enterprises around the country and internationally. For those wanting to try raising oysters on their own dock, an Oyster Gardeners Package including 1,000 hatchery-developed seed and five mesh bags with attached floats is available.

An official March 23 ribbon cutting is scheduled in conjunction with the Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

For more information on Hoopers Island Seafood Market, call 410-397-3664, visit their Facebook page and check the website for online ordering at hoopersisland.com/shop.

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